


What is a Home

by comfycozysweaters



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Season 7 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 17:26:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16123289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comfycozysweaters/pseuds/comfycozysweaters
Summary: Home had been an elusive concept for so long that having it in their grasp felt surreal.





	What is a Home

**Author's Note:**

> not much to say about this, hope you enjoy!

Home.

 

What a weird word. Fluid and at the same time grounded-grounding. A specific place in the world that stood as something one could return to while also traveling and attaching as a descriptor to people, places, even feelings. Home was one place and many. The Castle was home. The Voltron team was home. The lions were home. Keith was home. Shiro and Pidge and Hunk and Allura and Coran were home. Lance was home. Space was home.

 

Earth was home. A house in a town close to the sea was home. Cuba was home. Mama and Papa and the entire McClain/Sanchez family was home.

 

Mom and Dad Holt was home.

 

Cooking in the kitchen, working on cars was home.

 

A desert shack with maps and unopened boxes was home.

 

The Garrison was home. Adam’s plaque was home.

 

Home had been an elusive concept for so long that having it in their grasp felt surreal.

 

As much as home was Voltron, their true home, the home that they bled for, fought to preserve galaxies away, would always be Earth. Perhaps one day it would give way to another planet, another people, but nothing could replace it now. Nothing stood up to the memories, the life, they had lived before being blasted into a war they never knew existed.

 

Home was a war on their doorstep three years in the future. Galra cruisers and planet killers. The mesh of Altean and Earth technology. A planet in need of liberation. A fight no one expected to survive.

 

And that was fine. They got the chance to be on Earth again, to breathe its air, feel its wind on their faces, live on solid ground surrounded by beloved family and friends. They would die having known home again after so long. Die protecting it.

 

A noble death. A noble cause.

 

Home was waking up when you thought you’d never do so again. A hospital that smelled of flowers and cleaning supplies. Family visits, recovery with their team, rehabilitation as they learned to walk again or hold objects because they may not have died but they were left injured. It had been close.

 

Tears had been shed while the fates of the Paladins was unclear, receiving surgeries, blood transfusions, care that saved their lives. They woke broken, but strong and the tears of mourning turned to tears of celebration.

 

Tears of being home.

 

Home was noticing how much has changed. How much they had changed. It was uncomfortable silences and jokes falling flat as the reaction family expected never came up. Nostalgia for the stars and freedom of space. The guilt when they wished they were back in orbit, fighting a war because that was some how easier than having to stare into your mother’s eyes and see the disappointment, the sadness, when they realized how much you’d changed. Noticing the differences big and small that created a rift between themselves and their family.

 

Ceremonies and political talks, welcoming off worlders, aliens, establishing Earth as a base for those looking for a home. Exhaustion and sleep overs. Reluctance to leave the team, to return to their homes and families. More guilt at preferring team mates to family. More guilt as they talked about leaving, the excuse of the remnants of war in galaxies far away justifying their yearning.

 

Home turned sour in their mouths.

 

Then they found the Altean and home became space once again. No longer an if, but a when. They were sad to leave but happy to now that they’d finally been back to Earth. Content at scratching that particular itch and ready to be useful again.

 

Home was stars and planets surrounding them, lions flying through space, Voltron binding their minds. It was an ever changing word, but home was each other.

 

And so long as they were together, Home was right there.


End file.
